Not Applicable.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sash system having doors, each being freely opened and closed by sliding and folding. More particularly, the present invention relates to an improved sliding sash system having an inner sash door and an outer sash door, each of which can be operated through selecting a sliding open/close mode or a folding open/close mode.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional sash systems of the type, which can be arbitrarily opened and closed through sliding and folding, are well known in Japanese Patent Laid-open publication No. 2001-280018 previously proposed by the present applicant.
In this related art, the sash system has two sash doors including an inner sash door and an outer door sash inside a sash frame. The sash doors are mounted and mutually slidable inside the sash frame integrally assembled in a rectangular form. This sash system has the following structure.
That is, each sash door has a vertical door front frame disposed at the left end thereof, a vertical door end frame disposed at the right end thereof, a horizontal divider panel connecting the door front frame and the door end frame, and a vertical intermediate interlocking frame. The vertical intermediate interlocking frame is disposed at the intermediate portion of the divider panel so as to be two-folded with respect to a rotational shaft. Moreover, the sash frame has an upper frame in which a pair of upper guide rails are built and a lower frame in which a pair of lower guide rails are built. In each sash door, the shaft at the upper end of the door front frame, the shaft at the upper end of the door end frame, and the shaft at the upper end of the intermediate interlocking frame are engaged to the upper guide rails. The shaft at the lower end of the door front frame, the shaft at the lower end of the door end frame, and the shaft at the lower end of the intermediate interlocking frame are engaged to the lower guide rails. The upper shaft of the door front frame is always engaged to the corresponding upper guide rail. The lower shaft of the door front frame is always engaged to the corresponding lower guide rail. The upper shaft of the door end frame is always engaged to the corresponding upper guide rails. The lower shaft of the door end frame is always engaged to the corresponding lower guide rails. The upper shaft of the intermediate interlocking frame can be engaged or disengaged at the position where the corresponding upper guide rail is set. The lower shaft of the intermediate interlocking frame can be engaged or disengaged at the position where the corresponding lower guide rail is set.
In the sash system with the above-mentioned structure, the sash doors can be arbitrarily opened and closed mutually by a sliding operation, with the intermediate interlocking frame engaged to the upper and lower guide rails and with each sash door expanded. With the intermediate interlocking frame disengaged from the upper and lower guide rails, each sash door can be opened and closed arbitrarily in a two-fold state.
Each sash door operates in the two use modes of sliding and folding. That is, the upper end shaft of the door front frame is engagable to and disengagable from the upper guide rail and the lower end shaft of the door end frame is engagable to and disengagable from the lower guide rail. With such an engagement/disengagement function, an engagement/disengagement mechanism, for example, formed of an espagnolette and a lever handle, is mounted to an intermediate interlocking frame. The operation of the engagement/disengagement mechanism causes a vertical movement of an L-shaped slider disposed on the indoor side of each intermediate interlocking frame, so that desired engagement and disengagement is achieved.
By operating the engagement/disengagement mechanism located on the intermediate interlocking frame, the intermediate interlocking frame of each sash door is engaged to and disengaged from each upper guide rail while being engaged to and disengaged from each lower guide rail. For that reason, it is not needed to newly machine the upper frame, the lower frame, or the guide rail in a sash frame. In the sash structure, the airtight holding means can easily maintain high air-tightness in a manner similar to that of the conventional double sliding sash system.
After all, the sash system, having an inner sash door and an outer sash door to one sash frame, has the folded opening/closing function, together with the conventional double sliding function maintained in the opening/closing of each sash door. For that reason, the sash system has the advantage of realizing the folded opening/closing function or selectively fully opening, if necessary, a window, in addition to the general double sliding function.
However, in the above-mentioned sash system, the engagement/disengagement mechanism, which changes from opening/closing through sliding and opening/closing through folding, becomes complicated. Moreover, there is an unfavorable problem in that building the engagement/disengagement means in the intermediate interlocking frame leads to a complicated structure.
The present invention is made to solve the above-mentioned problems.
An object of the invention is to provide a sash system that can maintain an air-tightness equivalent to (or substantially equivalent to) that of a conventional double-sliding sash system.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved sash system that has a simplified engagement/disengagement mechanism. The engagement/disengagement mechanism can selectively provide quickly, easily and reliably the use mode of sliding sash doors engaged by an intermediate interlocking frame along a guide rail or the use mode of folding sash doors disengaged from a guide rail.
In order to solve the conventional problems and to achieve the object of the present invention, the present invention re-studied air-tightness of the sash system of the type which is opened and closed by sliding. With the inner sash door and the outer inner door closed by sliding, the air tightness of the sash system is generally achieved using airtight members. The air tight member is inserted between the upper, lower, right, and left sides of a sash frame and the contact portions between the sash frame and each sash door, or is inserted between door end frames. The present invention paid attention to the fact that the air-tightness is maintained in a closed state of each sash door.
The contact surfaces between sash doors disposed in a closed state may maintain air-tightness in the elongated direction of the upper and lower frames of a sash frame or in the elongated direction of each guide rail. However, it is obvious that other elongated portions of the upper and lower frames and the elongated portions of each guide rail, that is, the outdoor portion and the indoor portion of the inner sash door and the outer sash door disposed in a closed state do not work to maintain air-tightness. The non-airtight maintaining portion is used to engage and disengage the intermediate interlocking frame of each sash door to each guide rail. In other words, the upper and lower shafts of an intermediate interlocking frame are engaged and disengaged by means of a communicating path, such as a cutaway portion, formed in each guide rail. By doing so, the present invention found that the upper and lower frames and the guide rails can be easily and certainly machined. The present invention further found that both engagement of each guide rail to an intermediate interlocking frame and disengagement of an intermediate interlocking frame from each guide rail can be performed quickly, simply and certainly.
According to the present invention, based on the above-mentioned knowledge, the intermediate interlocking frame can be engaged to or disengaged from a guide rail, with sash doors in an open state where no air-tightness or no airtight holding means can be obtained.
That is, according to the present invention, a sash system, wherein sash doors are opened and closed by sliding and folding, comprises a pair of sash doors including an inner sash door and an outer sash door, each of the sash doors including a vertical door front frame disposed on the right end of each sash door, a vertical door end frame disposed on the left end of each sash door, a horizontal divider panel connecting the door front frame and the end frame, and an intermediate interlocking frame disposed to a horizontal intermediate portion of the divider panel, the intermediate interlocking frame being two-folded horizontally with respect to a rotational shaft thereof; an upper sash frame and a lower sash frame; and an inner guide rail built in the upper frame and an outer guide rail built in the lower frame, the door front frame and the door end frame corresponding to each sash door being always engaged with the inner guide rail and with the outer guide rail, respectively. The intermediate interlocking frame is engaged so as to be detachable from each guide rail or from an interlocking frame guide rail in parallel to each guide rail. The sash system can arbitrarily select a first mode and a second mode, the first mode in which the sash doors are slidably opened and closed in an intermediate interlocking frame engaged state and the second mode in which each of the sash doors are folded in an intermediate interlocking frame disengaged state. The position where an intermediate interlocking frame in each sash door is engaged to and disengaged from each guide rail is set to the position where the sash doors are mutually slid from its closed state to its open state or is set to an opened position opposite to a closed position before movement.
According to the present invention, the airtight holder similar to that in the conventional double sliding sash system maintains high air-tightness. Meanwhile, each sash door can be arbitrarily opened and closed by sliding and folding.
In another embodiment of the invention, each guide rail has a cutaway communicating portion corresponding to the operation set position. An intermediate interlocking frame of each sash door is engaged to and detached from a corresponding guide rail through the cutaway communicating portion.
According to the present invention, in addition to the above-mentioned function and effect, the intermediate interlocking frame using the cutaway communicating portion can be engaged and disengaged certainly and easily.
In the sash system, the cutaway communicating portion is formed by cutting away a protrusion fin or protrusion wall of each guide rail in a U-shaped form, for engagement and disengagement of the intermediate interlocking frame.
In another embodiment of the invention, the cutaway communicating portion is formed by cutting away a protrusion fin or protrusion wall of each guide rail in an L-shaped form, for engagement and disengagement of the intermediate interlocking frame and for opening of the end of the divider panel.
According to the present invention, in addition to the above-mentioned function and effect, the cutaway communicating portion can be adjusted to the general relationship between the sash door and the sash frame to preferably perform engagement and detachment of the intermediate interlocking frame.
In the sash system, each sash door is arbitrarily moved to an opened position, opposite to a closed arrangement, in two steps including a home position where each sash door is opened and closed slidably and a xe2x80x9clet it to go pastxe2x80x9d position where each sash door is displaced toward the vertical frame of the sash frame, whereby engagement and disengagement of the intermediate interlocking frame is set to the xe2x80x9clet it to go pastxe2x80x9d position.
According to the present invention, in addition to the above-mentioned function and effect, opening/closing of each sash door by sliding and folding can be made at a different position. Meanwhile, because opening/closing through sliding becomes a normal mode, each sash door is not opened in a folded state while being opened by sliding it.
The sash system further comprises a door stopper for sash door movement position selection disposed between a vertical frame of a door end frame of a sash door and a vertical frame of the sash frame, for opening said sash door in the two steps.
According to the present invention, in addition to the above-mentioned function and effect, the simple, easy operation of the door stopper allows the two-step opening movement of each sash door to be selectively performed through sliding and through folding.
In the sash system, the door stopper can stand up or fall vertically or inwardly/outwardly to the door end frame of each sash door or to a vertical frame of a sash frame, whereby a displacement amount to a xe2x80x9clet it to go pastxe2x80x9d position of a corresponding sash door or an effective operation length of each guide rail is varied in response to a standing or falling operation of the door stopper.
According to the present invention, in addition to the above-mentioned function and effect, because the door stopper can rise up and fall, the position where each sash door is opened and closed through sliding and folding can be selected more certainly.
In the sash system, each of the sash doors comprises a door stop framework, a door end frame, two divider panels disposed between the door stop framework and the door end frame, the divider panels having the same width, and a single intermediate interlocking frame disposed at an intermediate portion of each divider panel, whereby each of the sash doors can be quickly folded in a flat, V-shaped form for opening and closing.
In the sash system, each of the sash doors comprises a door stop framework, a door end frame, an even number of divider panels (being at least four divider panels) disposed between the door stop framework and the door end frame, the divider panels having the same width, and an even number of intermediate interlocking frames disposed at an intermediate portion of each divider panel, whereby each of the sash doors can be folded in a concertina form for opening and closing, the concertina form having fold lines corresponding to said even number.
According to the present invention, in addition to the above-mentioned function and effect, the entire basic structure of each sash door is specified while each sash door can be easily folded effectively through folding.